Best of 2k12

In 2k12, I fell out of love with the indie music scene. My mind became clouded with the rise of the undeserving buzzbands, the broken way that blogs think they are supposed to post as much bullshit as possible, and my own drive to 'stay alive' by blogging abt shit that I don't even care about. I often think back to what 'formative spirit of indie' possessed me to even enjoy 'the scene' enough to start a blog about it. I've been trying to rediscover the elements that made it all fun.

I forgot how 2 buzz. I forgot how 2 tastemake. I forgot how 2 celebrate worthy efforts.

These are three indie values that we can use in order to 'get back on track' in the face of this Broken Indie Machine.1) Indie is most fun when we are positively celebrating a band that is 'making a leap', when you feel like a band is actualizing their potential. When in doubt, always 'hype' newer products, instead of leaning on existing buzzband brands which make the scene feel 'stale.'
2) We enjoy celebrating the diy-vibed efforts of people who opt to carve their own paths instead of just 'trying too hard' to 'play by the rules' and exploit established press mechanisms
3) The buzzband that makes the most bloggable mp3s is ultimately the most valuable. (AKA- bands that can write entire albums with solid MP3s should be considered the most valuable bands)

There is one album that soothed my vibes since its release in late August. It helped me 2 rediscover my <3. It helped me 2 re-understand why I even listen 2 music. It took me to an offline place where I no longer thought abt it in terms of the internet indie machine. It helped me understand my past, and gave me hope 4 the future.

Wild Nothing's "Nocturne" is the most relevant/authentic/organically_buzzworthy album of 2k12.

"Nocturne" is one of the only albums that is interesting to listen to 'start to finish' of the year. While so many other over-branded (and overrated) buzzbands just got to replicate their sound on an album that 'of course' critics were supposed to love, Wild Nothing was album to 'grow into their potential.' The idea of a band 'organically' reaching their potential is not something that the current indiesphere has the tools to recognize anymore. Right now it's all about the model of taking a 'new' buzz product and forcing them down your throat as 'the next great thing.'

There's more to Wild Nothing than understanding why Nocturne was the perfect-est album of 2k12. Digging to the core of Wild Nothing requires multiple listens to their 2010 album Gemini. It's weird to revisit that album now because Gemini was almost imperfectly wedged between the chillwave movement and the buzzy fuzzy movement. Both genres have somewhat 'faded'/'evolved', but the 2k8-2k10 fuzzybuzzychillwave era was probably the last time that indie buzz was 'organically produced'. It was definitely a phase of music that represented the 'potential' of something great, and many of those bands didn't even produce 'what we though they were capable of.' In a way, I think Wild Nothing is actually the band that has actualized the spirit of the 'hypothetical potential' from 2k9-2k12.

"Chinatown" is probably one of the top 5 songs of the post-2k9 indie bubble burst era. In a way, it was actually the purest chillwave song ever written.

A song like "Summer Holiday" off Gemini resides on the fuzzybuzzy side of the spectrum.

Remember fuzzybuzzy, back when the idea of 'vintage garage guitar rock' with distorted vocals was 'pure'?
Remember chillwave, back when we used to celebrate the bleepbloops and chill synths with distorted vocals was organic?

Of course it was pretty mediocre (besides the singles), but I think it was somewhat impossible for all of those bands to maintain the spirit of DIY that attracted us to them. That 'DIY spirit' of people making music outside of our 'expectations for how we should interact with music' is basically gone. Fortunately, Wild Nothing didn't really get caught up in the press cycle (except their dumb music video for "Paradise" that they let Michelle Williams ruin by directing & reading some stupid M83-ish poem over it).

Wild Nothing's Nocturne is the most relevant/authentic buzzband & buzz album of 2k12.

Will 2k13 produce more relevancy?
Can we get back to this kind of purity, or will we just keep hyping 'bull shit'?
Can we get back 2 the formative spirit of indie?
Did "Nocturne" teach us how 2 <3 again?
Did Wild Nothing teach us how 2 ride chillwave again?
Did Wild Nothing 'escape' the grasp of the Corrupt Indie Machine?
Is Wild Nothing the greatest chillwave band that nvr existed?
If a chillwave band/the Arcade Fire/existing buzzband wrote this album, would it be hyped as best of the year?
Is Wild Nothing's "Nocturne" just the same ol' indie nostalgic 80s aesthetic that became so tired, or did they actually 'perfect' it?

What was ur #1 album of 2k12?
R u 1 of those lamestreamers who picked a 'rap album'?
R u 1 of those indiestreamers who picked a 'name brand' indie band?
Do websites that make year-end best-of lists even 'care' about the music, or are they just trying 2 get hits?
Is 'indie' almost dead [via the core fan base getting older] or will there be 1 last Renaissance b4 it all dies?